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Introducing Nan Zaimaitas by Angela MacGregor

I first met Nan at the start of my own career in the Scottish Railways. You would be forgiven for overlooking this unassuming woman as being ‘nobody important’, as she sat quietly in Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) branch meetings while other voices were raised, and tempers frayed. Then Nan would speak quietly and was able to articulate clearly what was needed in our struggle for equality in the workplace. I also met her at various RMT women’s conferences, and it was immediately evident that with Nan, ‘still waters really do run deep’. She has a steely determination in her eyes as she speaks with strength and intelligence. This, for me, made her an excellent person to be interviewed for this project, knowing that she had workplace experiences and insights that should not be lost but preserved for future generations of railway workers.

This interview was conducted in July 2021.

Background

I joined the railway in 1977 as a cleaner at the Corkerhill depot, located on the Paisley Canal line, between Glasgow Central and Paisley Canal station in the South West of Glasgow.

I later moved to a new cleaning depot at Bridgeton, in the East End of the city. I never really thought about other roles within the railway as I needed the set working patterns to be able to arrange childcare for my family. In those days work would have been impossible without the support of family members, especially my mum. It is good to know that through the trade unions fighting for workers’ rights, the railway now offers family friendly hours, albeit limited at present in 2021–2022 with the COVID-19 pandemic, but who knows what might change for future generations of women workers.

Inspired by Union Activists

At Bridgeton I worked alongside many wonderful characters and the stories they could tell were often humorous, even in dire circumstances, very much a trait of Glaswegian humour. It kept my young impressionable mind ablaze!  I was inspired by two of my colleagues in particular – John Bond, an ex-guard, and Alfred Riley who was an ex-marine who served during the Second World War.  They told me about other parts of the world and the impressive grandeur of the Russian Railway and I watched them staunchly defend colleagues. They could not be cowed and I was able to learn much from their approach, gleaning the knowledge I would later need to defend myself and my colleagues.  They also told me that you can always stand against bullying with truth for there is no argument against it.

Challenging Bullying and Becoming a Union Rep

In the early 1980s the Bridgeton depot was shut with the opening of the Yoker Depot in the West of Glasgow.  I continued my role as carriage cleaner, which I loved, but witnessed a campaign of bullying and harassment by a couple of management inspectors towards the cleaners. I watched grown men crumble, reduced to tears as they were threatened with dismissal and told to repeat chores for no reason. The inspectors tried it with me, on one occasion calling me back into a train coach to mop a floor I had already done. I asked to be shown the problem but the inspector shouted at me to just do it. I refused and she tried to have me disciplined – on more than one occasion.

His question was very poignant as he was asking why it was only me and not everyone else in the depot coming up to challenge it.Others got far worse treatment. In fact, it got so bad that I could not take the injustice anymore and went up to the RMT Union Offices in Hope Street near Glasgow Central Station and detailed what was going on to the union official who was present. After I had finished, he said “Why are you here?” I was exasperated and said, “I just told you”. But his question was very poignant as he was asking why it was only me and not everyone else in the depot coming up to challenge it. There and then an RMT union rep for the cleaners at the Bridgeton depot was born! The role and its responsibilities take dedication and commitment as you must do your homework, endless hours buried away in corner of the house, away from family time, in order to be able to best represent your colleagues.

One night while on duty I could hear yelling and screaming in one of the coaches. I entered with a number of my colleagues to see what was going on. There was a young cleaner who was struggling with mental health issues, crying at the hands of two inspectors who were bullying and threatening to sack him. They then yelled at me to leave or face the sack too. I refused; tempers frayed – by this time we were all involved. Someone tried to calm the cleaner and I left and called control, insisting they come down to sort this out. They arrived 15 minutes later, took statements and the two bosses in question were suspended without pay for a period of time. It later transpired the chap had been suffering from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning, seriously affecting the way he could perform his work never mind his general health.

Challenging Perspectives: a Woman’s Place…

Later, I was the first woman to be given the opportunity to sit on the ScotRail Company Council. At the first meeting I attended I saw the men looking sceptical at idea that a woman would be best able to represent what was overwhelmingly a male workforce. It was scary as I had never done anything like this in my life, but it was good to see a mutual respect grow during my tenure; I challenged the status quo and the preconceived ideas that many of them held with regards to women workers in sections of the railway industry.

By the late 1980s I was heavily involved with the union, fighting for workers’ rights. On one occasion the Glasgow office sent me to defend a worker who was due to be sacked.  On arrival the man, a long-time member of union and railway, looked at me, distressed, and said “I'm due tae be sacked and they send a woman tae defend me.”  I calmly said that we could rearrange the meeting and have someone else come to represent him, but he said “Acht well, yir here now”.  I went in and was able to overturn the boss’s decision and this man is still in work to this day. He was so impressed he shook my hand. It is good to think that in this role I also helped to change perceptions about women in the workforce – even if it is one person at a time, the ripple effects are far reaching.
 

Building a Legacy

At that time the rep’s role covered Health and Safety issues too. On one occasion a manager tried to get me to stand at the buffer to clean front of the train which meant standing on the white-painted wood which was possibly covered with oil and grease from the fitters. I refused which upset him. He was yelling and threatening me with the sack. He called in the area manager to that end but when he came down and spoke to me, I told him I was refusing to do it on safety grounds; I could slip or fall over the back of the buffer and get trapped. He asked what I would suggest, so I showed him the metal grippers that were used elsewhere in the depot and said to attach them to block off the back area.  He agreed it was a good idea and to this day, almost 30 years later, that safety measure is still in place.